Electronic rumor cascade management in computer network communications

ABSTRACT

Controlling cascade of information transmitted and received via one or more online data sharing platforms and electronic communication network. A message to be shared is detected. The message and the corresponding message stream may be analyzed. An action may be taken upon the message responsive to one or more criteria being met based on analyzing the message and the corresponding message stream. The action may include at least forcing a fact check of the message that determines veracity of the message. The action may also include one or more of removing the message, disabling the message, allowing conditional sharing of the message, or allowing the message to be shared. The one or more criteria may include at least determining a confidence value below a threshold value that indicates the message is non-factual.

FIELD

The present application relates generally to computers and computerapplications, and more particularly to computer networks andcommunication and managing electronic rumor cascades.

BACKGROUND

Electronic mail clients and online social networks provide universalmechanisms to connect people and information in logical and organizedways and enable sharing and processing of information between the users.Examples of mechanisms of sharing and processing information include theinbox, wall, activity stream, timeline, and profile. These mechanismsenable one to rapidly share information with others and gatherinformation from others in the computer networks.

Online social networks provide a substrate for rumor propagation.Recognizing that information received via friends tends to be trusted,online social networks usually allow individuals to transmit informationto many friends at once. The trust between friends is impacted based onposts.

However, many rumors, advertising and non-factual cascades far out livethe useful life span. False attributions may occur on outdatedinformation that has been circulating online.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A computer-implemented method and system of controlling cascade ofinformation transmitted and received via one or more online data sharingplatforms and electronic communication may be provided. The method maybe performed by one or more processors, and may comprise determiningthat a message is to be shared. The method may also comprise analyzingthe message and corresponding message stream. The method may furthercomprise queuing the message. The method may also comprise taking anaction upon the message responsive to one or more criteria being metbased on the analyzing. The action may comprise at least forcing a factcheck of the message that determines veracity of the message. The actionmay comprise one or more of removing the message, disabling the message,allowing conditional sharing of the message, or allowing the message tobe shared. The one or more criteria may comprise at least determining aconfidence value below a threshold value that indicates the message isnon-factual. In one aspect, the method may reduce or prevent spreadingof information determined to be non-factual or harmful.

A system of controlling cascade of information transmitted and receivedvia one or more online data sharing platforms and electroniccommunication network, in one aspect, may comprise one or moreprocessors and a memory device coupled to one or more of the processors.One or more of the processors may be operable to determine that amessage is to be shared. One or more of the processors may be furtheroperable to analyze the message and corresponding message stream. One ormore of the processors may be further operable to queue the message onthe memory device. One or more of the processors may be further operableto take an action upon the message responsive to one or more criteriabeing met based on the analyzing. In one aspect, the action may compriseat least forcing a fact check of the message that determines veracity ofthe message. The action may also comprise one or more of removing themessage, disabling the message, allowing conditional sharing of themessage, or allowing the message to be shared. The one or more criteriamay comprise at least determining a confidence value below a thresholdvalue that indicates the message is non-factual. In one aspect, thesystem may reduce or prevent spreading of information determined to benon-factual or harmful.

A computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructionsexecutable by a machine to perform one or more methods described hereinalso may be provided.

Further features as well as the structure and operation of variousembodiments are described in detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of controlling spread orcascade of information transmitted and received via one or more onlinedata sharing platforms and electronic communication network in oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a use scenario in one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating system components that may controlcascade of information, for example, in online social network platformsor electronic mail systems, in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic of an example computer or processingsystem that may implement a system of controlling cascade of informationin electronic platforms in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method of the present disclosure in one embodiment mayprovide for controlling the sharing of online communication data, forexample, posts and messages on the Internet, e.g., via online socialnetwork platform, electronic mail (e-mail), and others. The systemand/or method of the present disclosure in one embodiment may allow forcontrolling of the spread of non-factual or harmful information in orderto prevent false or harmful rumor cascades.

In one aspect, the system and/or method may determine that a message isgoing to be shared among users via an electronic communication orcomputer network, e.g., to be posted to or replied to. The message andthe corresponding stream may be analyzed. The message, e.g., posted orreplied to message may be queued in a memory device. Responsive todetermining that a condition is reached or satisfied, an action may betaken on the message, e.g., posted or replied to message.

Examples of actions taken on the message may include, but are notlimited to, forcing a fact check to be performed on the message,removing the posted or replied to message, only allowing a conditionalresharing of the message, allowing to share the message only if anexpert shared or shares the message also, delegating a reviewer (e.g.,another user) to review the message and allowing sharing of the messageonly if the reviewer verifies the message is true, checking the tone ofcomments on the message (e.g., in more than only the prior poster'sstream) and allowing sharing only if the comments indicate a generalagreement or consensus to the message. In another aspect, it may bedetermined to take no action.

The system and/or method of the present disclosure may work in acomputing environment such as collaboration and social systems such asemail systems and social networking systems, for example, includingasynchronous networks (e.g., where a user may follow another user via anonline social network or like platform), synchronous networks (e.g.,where users connect to one another and carry on a conversation via anonline social network or like platform), instant messaging, wiki, andothers.

The system and/or method of the present disclosure in one embodiment mayprovide for efficient collaboration portfolio, for example, by reducingunnecessary data transmission and storage in collaboration and socialsystems. By reducing the sharing of rumors, improvements to the computersystem or networks themselves are provided in that, for example, thereis a less need for storage of data thereby reducing storage or memoryspace, and that there is less amount of data being transmitted (e.g.,less data traffic) in the computer communication networks. The systemand/or method of the present disclosure also allow for focusing on highquality data.

The system and/or method may use data associated with online socialnetwork members, posts and associated data (e.g., authors, content,readers), actions on the post (e.g., removal, promotion, like, comment,share, @mentions), and post/comments analytics (e.g., sentiment, tone ofcomments, natural language, downstream shares, upstream shares).

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of controlling spread orcascade of information transmitted and received via one or more onlinedata sharing platforms and electronic communication network in oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The method may be performed by oneor more processors. At 102, it is detected or determined whether amessage or content is to be shared. For example, a computer module orfunction may be implemented to hook onto a program method or componentof an online data sharing platform (e.g., share methods such as create,update) to detect a message that is to be shared. Hooking may beimplemented, for example, by injecting a code or like computerinstructions, for example, that may catch or intercept events, functioncalls, or the like between operating components of the online datasharing platform, electronic communication network, or the like todetect, for example, whether the message is being shared or replied to.Other implementation techniques may be utilized for hookingfunctionality. Such hooking may detect posts, comments, and actions ofusers such as removing, promoting, liking, commenting, sharing,@mention-ing. Such hooking function may be implemented to listen toDocument Object Model (DOM) changes such as Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) documents, listening to compliance and analytics streams (e.g.,social media aggregation application programming interfaces (APIs), andlistening to submit and/or post button for postings. The online datasharing platforms may include, but are not limited to, electronic mail,instant message platform, wiki, online social network platformcomprising wall, activity stream, timeline, profile.

At 104, the message or content, and corresponding stream, are analyzed.The corresponding stream refers to other messages or content that is inthe message stream of the message or determined to be shared, forexample, a chain of emails, which the message or content is part of, achain of posts on a social network web page, which the message orcontent is part of.

Upon detecting the share on the hook, the method may include retrievingthe key identifier for the post which is to be shared. In oneembodiment, data attribute such as a correlation identifier,parent-identifier may be used or the DOM may be inspected, to identifyor determine parent-child relationship on the messages. The method mayalso include extracting the natural language of the related posts, andrelated metadata.

The analysis at 104 may include analyzing the message, its author,content, and readers, analyzing actions on the message (e.g., removal,promotion, like, comment, share, @mention), analyzing sentiment, tone ofcomments (e.g., by analyzing thread/conversation graph, e.g., checkingthe tone (sentiment) of the message based on the corresponding stream),downstream shares and upstream shares of the message, and identifiesthose attributes of the message. The analysis at 104 may also includeanalyzing by one or more of natural language processing technique,extracting keywords from text of the message and corresponding stream,text analysis technique that develops a regression model associated withthe message and corresponding stream. The analyzing, for example, maydetermine the subject or topic of the message or post, opinion andsentiment about the message or post, and the tone of the commentsrelated to the message or post.

Another example of analyzing may include checking the tone of commentson the message. For instance, the thread or conversation graph of theconversation or message stream involving the message may be analyzed todetermine the general sentiment about the quality of the post(message/content). The tone of comments may be checked in more than onlythe prior poster's stream. If the tone of comments indicates generallyagreement, then the message may be shared or posted.

At 106, the message or content is queued, for example, on a memorydevice or a storage device, for example, coupled to one or more of theprocessors that may perform the method.

At 108, responsive to determining that one or more criteria is met basedon the analyzing, an action may be taken. For instance, based on theanalysis, it is determined whether the message or post is a candidatefor not sharing or preventing from spreading, and hence, further actionis taken. A criterion, for example, may include determining that thecontent of the message cannot be verified as being credible, forinstance, the message content has confidence value below a thresholdvalue that indicates whether the message is likely to be non-factual.

An action may include one or more of forcing a fact check of the messagethat determines veracity of the message, one or more of removing themessage, disabling the message, allowing conditional sharing of themessage (e.g., only if the message is posted by an expert on the topicof the message, only after the message is delegated to an identifiedexpert for review and approved), or allowing the message to be shared.In this way, spread of information determined to be non-factual orharmful is reduced or prevented.

An example action may include forcing a fact check. Forcing a fact checkof the message may include scanning the message or content andidentifying corresponding confidence in the veracity of the message orcontent. One or more existing techniques may be utilized to determineconfidence value associated with the veracity of the content. Forcing afact check may also include presenting rules (e.g., evidence from atrusted source that may explain why the content may be non-factual,e.g., a corresponding evidence from a trusted source points to a hoax),which state the reason or confidence in the veracity and prompting forsecondary approval based on fact check confidence. For instance, theauthor of the message may be prompted for secondary approval.

Another example of an action may include removing message copies forfurther transmission (e.g., retweet) or disabling the re-messagingcapability or another functionality that would have an effect ofpropagating the message further to others. For instance, a ‘like’ oranother approval functionality further propagates the message of asocial network by notifying other users (on their social network page,wall, activity stream or the like) who follow the user who indicated a‘like’ or approval of the message. In one aspect, the sentiment of theconversation may be analyzed, and the message or content may be deletedfrom the user's stream. The original poster's conversation may be alsodeleted. In another aspect, the conversation or the posted message maybe hidden from the user's web page, activity stream, wall or the like.Still yet, the continuation of the stream may be disabled, e.g., bylocking a conversation. If, for example, the message is in an email, anyforwarding or reply to actions may be prevented on that email, e.g.,using a lock functionality that may be provided with forum products.

Another example of an action may include conditional reshare.Conditionally resharing may include identifying an expert for a topic ofthe message. For instance, based on the analysis of the message orcontent, it may be determined that the topic of the message is directedto engineering. Also, based on the analysis, it may be determined thatthe author or a poster of the message or content is an expert onengineering. In this instance, the condition that an expert of a topicposted or authored the message associated with the topic is satisfied,and hence the message may be shared.

In another aspect, to perform conditional resharing actions, a messagethread may be monitored to determine whether the author or a poster tothe thread is an expert. Responsive to determining that the author orthe poster is an expert, the message may be automatically shared.Optionally, the expert's post may be highlighted to annotated withanother graphically indication. Yet in another aspect, the message mayundergo a secondary approval process. Still in another aspect, themessage may be sent to delegated to an identified expert for review andapproval to share the message. Still in another aspect, trusted advisorsin the user's network may be polled to determine their opinion on theveracity of the message prior to posting or not posting for sharing.

In one embodiment, an example of an action may also include doingnothing with the shared post.

At 110, a trust metric may be associated with an author of the message,and the trust metric may be reduced responsive finding that the messageor content includes non-factual data. For example, a set of trustmetrics may be implemented for users. A user may set a trust metric foreach of the user's connections. If the user finds non-factual data inanother user's stream, the user may reduce the trust metric associatedwith that other user, kept by the user. In this way, the user can reducethe user's view of that other user's trust metric. In another aspect, ifit is determined that a user has shared without fact checking, thatuser's trust metric may be reduced. Still yet, if it is determined thata user has previously sent non-factual data, the user's trust metric maybe further reduced. The trust metric may be used to filter a view ofinformation. The trust metric may be added responsive to a user sharinginformation or message without fact checking.

FIG. 2 illustrates a use scenario in one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. User A, User B, User C and User D are members of an onlinesocial network. User A, User B and User C are connected. User C and UserD are also connected. User D posts a message to User C. Theabove-described methodology with reference to FIG. 1 may be performed onUser D's message even before it reaches User C, e.g., so that User D'smessage is prevented from reaching its recipient. In another aspect, themethodology may be performed responsive to User C receiving the message,e.g., so that User C would not be above to further propagate the messageto any of User C's connection.

In another embodiment, the methodology of the present disclosure may beactivated after a defined number of shares of the original content,e.g., 2 shares. For example User D shares the message with User D'snetwork of connections (which e.g., may include User C). User C sharesthe message with User B and User A. Responsive to User B and/or User Aposting the message for further sharing, the above describedfunctionality for determining whether to prevent further cascade of themessage may be activated. As described above, a trust metric may begenerated and associated with each user's connection on the socialnetwork. In one aspect, the analysis that may include heavycomputationally may be performed asynchronously. A confidence measuregenerated for measuring the veracity of the message may be attributed toa user's trust metric, and the trust metric may be used in subsequentcalculations.

The functionality described above may be implemented as a component of amessaging system or a social network system. FIG. 3 is a diagramillustrating system components that may control cascade of information,for example, in an online social network platform or electronic mailsystem, in one embodiment of the present disclosure. In one aspect, thecomponent 302 may be a plug-in component or a hook that include acapability to intercept function calls, events or the like in the onlinesocial network platform or electronic mail system 304. In anotheraspect, the technique or methodology described above may be implementedintegrally with such online social network platform or electronic mailsystem 304.

In another aspect, the component 302 or the like functionality may beimplemented on a client device (e.g., 306, 308, 310), for example,depending on an application type. For instance, for email applications,the intelligence for detecting and performing an action to reduce orprevent further spreading or cascading of information contained in amessage may implemented on a client side of the application.

One or more users, for example, who are members of a social network, maycommunicate via user devices (e.g., 306, 308, 310) over a computernetwork 312, with other members of the social network, e.g., theirconnections established on a social network application or server 304.The social network application 304, for example, allows the user to senda message, post a message, like (approve) a posted message and the like,for example for sharing with other members or connections on the socialnetwork. The component 302, e.g., detects the message or posted contentis to be shared or replied to, for example, by catching or interceptingan event occurring in the social network application 304 as a result ofa user performing one or more of sending, posting, liking, commenting,and other actions.

The component 302, e.g., retrieves the post and the related posts in theconversation or message stream. The component 302 may analyze thedetected post and related posts and determine the subject or topic ofthe post, the opinion and sentiment associated with the post, the toneof the comments related to the post. The component 302 may determinethat one or more of the subject, opinion, tone is more likely needing anaction, and for example, trigger an action on the message.

In one embodiment, the component 302 may establish for the determinedsubject or topic, that a user (e.g., at 306) is an expert. The component302 may queue the message, and responsive to that user posting about themessage, allow the message to be shared. In one aspect, a monitorwaiting on conditional reshare may be established.

In another aspect, the component 302 may be hook into or part of anelectronic mail system, and perform the above described functionalitiesby detecting email messages that are sent, replied to, forwarded, or thelike. The components (e.g., 302, 304, 306, 308, 310) shown in FIG. 3 runor execute on one or more processors such as a central processing unitor another processor.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic of an example computer or processingsystem that may implement a system of controlling cascade of informationin electronic platforms in one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thecomputer system is only one example of a suitable processing system andis not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of embodiments of the methodology described herein. Theprocessing system shown may be operational with numerous other generalpurpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the processingsystem shown in FIG. 3 may include, but are not limited to, personalcomputer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients,handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-basedsystems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloudcomputing environments that include any of the above systems or devices,and the like.

The computer system may be described in the general context of computersystem executable instructions, such as program modules, being executedby a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines,programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.The computer system may be practiced in distributed cloud computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloudcomputing environment, program modules may be located in both local andremote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

The components of computer system may include, but are not limited to,one or more processors or processing units 12, a system memory 16, and abus 14 that couples various system components including system memory 16to processor 12. The processor 12 may include a module 10 that performsthe methods described herein. The module 10 may be programmed into theintegrated circuits of the processor 12, or loaded from memory 16,storage device 18, or network 24 or combinations thereof.

Bus 14 may represent one or more of any of several types of busstructures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus usingany of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and notlimitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture(ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA)bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, andPeripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system may include a variety of computer system readable media.Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computersystem, and it may include both volatile and non-volatile media,removable and non-removable media.

System memory 16 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) and/or cachememory or others. Computer system may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 18 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(e.g., a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive forreading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk(e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from orwriting to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM,DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, eachcan be connected to bus 14 by one or more data media interfaces.

Computer system may also communicate with one or more external devices26 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 28, etc.; one ormore devices that enable a user to interact with computer system; and/orany devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computersystem to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Suchcommunication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 20.

Still yet, computer system can communicate with one or more networks 24such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN),and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 22. Asdepicted, network adapter 22 communicates with the other components ofcomputer system via bus 14. It should be understood that although notshown, other hardware and/or software components could be used inconjunction with computer system. Examples include, but are not limitedto: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external diskdrive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storagesystems, etc.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements, if any, in the claims below areintended to include any structure, material, or act for performing thefunction in combination with other claimed elements as specificallyclaimed. The description of the present invention has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

We claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method of controlling cascade ofinformation transmitted and received via one or more online data sharingplatforms and electronic communication network, the method performed byone or more processors, comprising: determining that a message is to beshared; analyzing the message and corresponding message stream; queuingthe message; and taking an action upon the message responsive to one ormore criteria being met based on the analyzing, the action comprising atleast forcing a fact check of the message that determines veracity ofthe message, and one or more of removing the message, disabling themessage, allowing conditional sharing of the message, or allowing themessage to be shared, the one or more criteria comprising at leastdetermining a confidence value below a threshold value that indicatesthe message is non-factual, wherein spreading of information determinedto be non-factual is reduced.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thedetermining that a message is to be shared, comprises one or more of:hooking onto a component of an online data sharing platform to detect amessage that is to be shared; listening to Document Object Model (DOM)changes; listening to compliance and analytics streams; listening tosubmit and post button for postings, or combinations thereof.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing themessage, associated author, associated content, associated readers, oneor more user actions on the message, sentiment and tone of commentsassociated with the message, downstream shares and upstream shares ofthe message.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the online data sharingplatforms comprise one or more of electronic mail, instant messageplatform, wiki, or an online social network platform comprising wall,activity stream, timeline, profile.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising associating a trust metric to an author of the message, andreducing the trust metric responsive to finding that the messageincludes non-factual data.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the actioncomprises said allowing conditional sharing of the message, wherein themessage is allowed to be shared only if an expert on a topic of themessage also commented on the message.
 7. A computer readable storagemedium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine toperform a method of controlling cascade of information transmitted andreceived via one or more online data sharing platforms and electroniccommunication network, the method comprising: determining that a messageis to be shared; analyzing the message and corresponding message stream;queuing the message; and taking an action upon the message responsive toone or more criteria being met based on the analyzing, the actioncomprising at least forcing a fact check of the message that determinesveracity of the message, and one or more of removing the message,disabling the message, allowing conditional sharing of the message, orallowing the message to be shared, the one or more criteria comprisingat least determining a confidence value below a threshold value thatindicates the message is non-factual, wherein spreading of informationdetermined to be non-factual is reduced.
 8. The computer readablestorage medium of claim 7, wherein the determining that a message is tobe shared, comprises one or more of: hooking onto a component of anonline data sharing platform to detect a message that is to be shared;listening to Document Object Model (DOM) changes; listening tocompliance and analytics streams; listening to submit and post buttonfor postings, or combinations thereof.
 9. The computer readable storagemedium of claim 7, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing themessage, associated author, associated content, associated readers, oneor more user actions on the message, sentiment and tone of commentsassociated with the message, downstream shares and upstream shares ofthe message.
 10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7,wherein the online data sharing platforms comprise one or more ofelectronic mail, instant message platform, wiki, or an online socialnetwork platform comprising wall, activity stream, timeline, profile.11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprisingassociating a trust metric to an author of the message, and reducing thetrust metric responsive to finding that the message includes non-factualdata.
 12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein theaction comprises said allowing conditional sharing of the message,wherein the message is allowed to be shared only if an expert on a topicof the message also commented on the message.
 13. A system ofcontrolling cascade of information transmitted and received via one ormore online data sharing platforms and electronic communication network,comprising: one or more processors; a memory device coupled to one ormore of the processors, one or more of the processors operable todetermine that a message is to be shared, one or more of the processorsfurther operable to analyze the message and corresponding messagestream, one or more of the processors further operable to queue themessage on the memory device, one or more of the processors furtheroperable to take an action upon the message responsive to one or morecriteria being met based on the analyzing, the action comprising atleast forcing a fact check of the message that determines veracity ofthe message, and one or more of removing the message, disabling themessage, allowing conditional sharing of the message, or allowing themessage to be shared, the one or more criteria comprising at leastdetermining a confidence value below a threshold value that indicatesthe message is non-factual, wherein spreading of information determinedto be non-factual is reduced.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein one ormore of the processors determines that a message is to be shared, by oneor more of hooking onto a component of an online data sharing platformto detect a message that is to be shared, listening to Document ObjectModel (DOM) changes, listening to compliance and analytics streams,listening to submit and post button for postings, or combinationsthereof.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein one or more of theprocessors analyzes the message by determining associated author,associated content, associated readers, one or more user actions on themessage, sentiment and tone of comments associated with the message,downstream shares and upstream shares of the message.
 16. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the online data sharing platforms comprise one or moreof electronic mail, instant message platform, wiki, or an online socialnetwork platform comprising wall, activity stream, timeline, profile.17. The system of claim 13, wherein one or more of the processorsassociates a trust metric to an author of the message, and reduces thetrust metric responsive to finding that the message includes non-factualdata.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein the action comprises saidallowing conditional sharing of the message, wherein the message isallowed to be shared only if an expert on a topic of the message alsocommented on the message.